As I've said before, the living room of our condo is the room that I am the least happy with. The problem, however, is that I really want to purchase several large (and of course, expensive) pieces of furniture to get it going in the direction that I want. Most of the furniture in this room is still randomly accumulated/gotten as hand me downs in college.
But, the paint job is still amazingly perfect (it's summer breeze by valspar) and the coffee table that Sean built me from driftwood is totally taking it in the right direction. I've had my eye on a new entertainment center ever since I made this mood board, but we never make it to Ikea (its 4 hours away) and when we do, usually aren't trying to pick up 4 50 pound, 7 foot long boxes.
However, we recently sold several things on craigslist & decided to put that cash in an envelope for the "Ikea Fund." Finally, Sean had to head to the mountains of North Carolina for a bachelor party and spent a night on the way with his family in Charlotte. He very generously spent several of his precious hometown hours scouring the Ikea warehouse for the exact entertainment center we had pre-selected.
It's worth noting that we love our current TV stand, and it is actually how we met. I love it for sentimental reasons but also because the TV hangs from a cross bar and is adjustable with left to right tilt. So, we have slid this sucker under the bed and plan to bust it out when we have a house with a Man Cave.
Here's a reminder of how the set up looked before:
And here it is now, with the new white washed set up.
The process was, like any Ikea build, a process. Some parts went easily, others had Sean yelling "why me!" In the end, the key to maintaining our sanity was to build it in chunks of time over the course of a week. So, yes, the living room was chaotic for a while. But it was much better than pulling a week-night all-nighter sticking pegs into holes & swatting the cat away from the screw pile.
I love love love how they turned out. And you know I couldn't resist doing a little styling on the shelves! There's so much storage, I had plenty of room to work with.
Our TV was just too big for the next smallest sized stand, so there is a bit of extra room around the tv. I said that means its time to head to Costco and check out the extra wide screens! Sean instead stuck these lamps on either side. They're old thrift store lamps I spray painted lagoon blue eons ago. And I have to say, I kinda like it.
The jury's still out on whether we will decorate between the TV and the upper shelves or on top of the center. For now, we are loving it as is!
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Hello, I'm Morgan, half of the creative force behind CharlestonCrafted.com! With a passion for DIY that dates back to 2012, I've transformed three homes and now I'm dedicated to helping others craft their dream spaces. Let's turn your house into a home together!
minnie says
I think the lamps are awesome!
CharlestonCrafted says
Thanks! Gotta give credit to Sean on that one!
Claire says
Hi! I realize that this is a really random question, but I was looking at this exact entertainment center, but I wanted to know how big your TV was? We don't have an Ikea close either, and I wanted to make sure it would work before we drove all the way over there!
Thank you!
-Claire
CharlestonCrafted says
Thanks for stopping by! This tv is 48" and there is tons of clearance on either side (where we have lamps). It comes in a smaller 2 drawer version too, which I think was for 46" and smaller TVs? I remember that it was very close to ours. Hope that helps!
Beyhan Cagri Trock, LEED AP says
Do you have a list of the parts you bought? What a great job!
Morgan says
This is what we got, but the single wide instead of double wide side shelves: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/hemnes-tv-storage-combination-white-stain-s49299555/